1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of client server communications and more particularly to differentiated web browser request processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
The popularity of client/server applications and their common information and transport protocols, the hypertext markup language (HTML) and the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), has lead to rapid acceptance of web technology as a universal interface for network access to information. HTTP is a machine independent protocol and utilizes connectionless best-efforts to send information. In consequence, each HTTP transaction is fully self-contained. An example of a typical client or web browser initiating a request for a web site from the web server illustrates the basic relationship between HTTP, HTML, the transport control protocol (TCP)/Internet Protocol (IP) and the server/client.
In illustration, FIG. 1A schematically depicts a communication structure for a web browser and web server known in the art. The system can include a web browser 105 that communicates with a web server 110 over a data communications link 115. The communications link 115 can include a local area network connection, wide area network connection, a connection over telephone lines or a combination of connection methods. The web browser 105 can communicate with the web server 110 using the generic communication protocol HTTP which can be transmitted between the web browser 105 and web server 110 over a TCP/IP link 115. The web server 110 can operate by accepting HTTP requests 120 from the network, and providing an HTTP response 125 to the requesting web browser 105. The HTTP response 125 can typically consist of an HTML document, but can also be a raw text file, an image, or some other type of document.
When web browser end user requests information from a particular web site, the browser initiates communication with the server by sending a “get” request to the server specifying the Universal Resource Locator (URL) of the desired web site. The web server would then obtain and supply the web browser with the HTML data corresponding to the web site specified by the URL. The web browser would then evaluate the HTML data received as an HTTP data stream from the web server to see if there were any embedded hyperlinks such as an icon or an image and, if such hyperlink exists would initiate requests specifying the URL of the hyperlink to obtain the specified data. This data would be incorporated into the designated web site and displayed to the user. Thus, a single user input request by a web browser may result in multiple additional requests which are automatically carried out by the web browser in response to the receipt of the HTML data corresponding to the user input request.
It is well known that some have implemented web sites in such a way that the sites render in a superior fashion in one Internet browser better than in another. Consequently, the web site owner has a stake in one web browser appearing to perform better than another. The problem is that the reputation of the web designer can be damaged for building a site that is not cross-platform as-it will be obvious that the designer favors a particular web browser. What is needed is a way to make the web browser appear to process requests neutrally while still providing favorable treatment towards a particular browser.